By: Sports DeskOctober 13, 2025 04:48 PM IST 3 min readTop Indian chess trainer and Dronacharya awardee RB Ramesh has criticised the National Championship set-up in India, comparing it with the US event and calling the Indian event the ‘weakest National Championship’ while being the strongest chess-playing nation.The likes of Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Hans Niemann, Abhimanyu Mishra, among the men’s and Alice Lee, Carissa Yip in the women’s event, are set to feature in the US National Chess Championship. This reflects the stature of the tournament, where all the top US chess players have prioritised the event, unlike the Indian counterpart, where many of the elite players like D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R. Praggnanandhaa have not featured in the National Championships in a long time.Ramesh pointed out that many Indians have to travel abroad to get their norms due to a lack of quality events in the country.“What a lineup in the US National Chess Championship! For over two decades, most chess players in India have dreamed of a closed National Championship where the top players compete for the National title!,” he wrote on X.What a lineup in the US National Chess Championship!For over two decades, most chess players in India have dreamed of a closed National Championship where the top players compete for the National title!It is unfortunate that we have not come up with a format (which every…— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) October 13, 2025“It is unfortunate that we have not come up with a format (which every Indian chess player knows – the biggest open secret in Indian chess) that encourages and incentivises top players to play in India. India is the strongest chess-playing nation in the world, with the weakest National Championship,” added Ramesh.The Chennai GM pointed out how organisers allow lower-rated players to participate in large numbers by charging a high entry fee, which ultimately affects the quality of the overall field.“The current reality is that, to meet GM norms and participate in high-quality tournaments, Indians have to travel abroad. The Indian open tournaments where you can make norms are few and far, and more importantly, cleverly designed in a manner that only an exceptional performance can make a norm. The organisers allow lower-rated players to participate in large numbers by charging a very high entry fee, which compromises the quality of the event,” wrote Ramesh.He continued: “As per Grok,” Overall, fewer than 10–15 norms are estimated to have been earned in India across all 89 GMs (less than 5% of the total), with the remaining 250+ achieved abroad in tournaments across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (e.g., in Spain, France, UAE, and Greece). This trend has intensified with India’s chess boom, as players increasingly travel for norm opportunities.”Story continues below this adRamesh not only spoke about the problems but also suggested some solutions. He said, “So much can be done easily to improve Indian chess by the system. Regular training camps, Indian Chess league, decent conditions (not the greedy “good conditions”) for National Championships, Strong open tournaments with a rating cutoff to make IM/GM norms, etc.“All these were demands of chess players for at least 2.5 decades. I hope that, in my lifetime, at least one or two of these will become a reality.”© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:chesschess news